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Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

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Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#231

Post by voisin »

treis wrote: post #55
Mizza wrote: post #52

Is anybody else kind of over AirBnb? I loved it for a while, but now prices have gone way up, the "cleaning fees" are exorbitant and make navigating/browsing a minefield, and I've had a few sketchy incidents (which were, admittedly, a side effect of choosing the cheapest place I could find), including one where the apartment manager came in, went through our clothes and _stole the bed_. I've found myself just using h…

If it's just you or a couple then hotels are generally better. AirBnBs are great for groups or families where it becomes cheaper per room and you get a common space. Also for things like remote cabins. We've taken to using AirBnB as a search and then booking directly with the provider. AirBnB's fees are exorbitant and they cost per night is marked up as well. I think we saved $600 or so with the last stay and got mor…

Are you sure the daily night rate is marked up? I haven’t heard that anywhere else.

How do you book directly? We find that anytime we’ve tried AirBNB strips out all portions of conversations that would allow the two parties to get in contact (email addresses, phone numbers, websites, addresses)

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#232

Post by treis »

voisin wrote: post #231
treis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's just you or a couple then hotels are generally better. AirBnBs are great for groups or families where it becomes cheaper per room and you get a common space. Also for things like remote cabins. We've taken to using AirBnB as a search and then booking directly with the provider. AirBnB's fees are exorbitant and they cost per night is marked up as well. I think we saved $600 or so with the last stay and got mor…

Are you sure the daily night rate is marked up? I haven’t heard that anywhere else. How do you book directly? We find that anytime we’ve tried AirBNB strips out all portions of conversations that would allow the two parties to get in contact (email addresses, phone numbers, websites, addresses)

>Are you sure the daily night rate is marked up?

Yep:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/48602487?check_in=2021-07-16&ch...

https://www.brett-robinson.com/search-results/?startDate=202...

>How do you book directly?

You can usually find out the building and then look to see if they have their own site.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#233

Post by bellyfullofbac »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #207
gpapilion wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sister has an au pair in the bay area, and she pays less for child care than I do at a in-home daycare. The au-pair industry is a bit of a scam, bringing labor from low cost countries. They are not paid the same as a nanny or day care worker, often it is half of full time daycare. The idea is that you're providing room and board, and thats part of their comp. Also the quality of care you get from an au pair is mix…

Not much of a scam when there's millions in second or third world country dreaming of such work experience. We forget safe home + food security is far from given in many places. Let alone other perks of Bay Area.

Honestly not even 2nd or 3rd world, I know a few Western European au-pairs who did a year in the US.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#234

Post by bellyfullofbac »

voisin wrote: post #230
yojo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One option for saving a few bucks on fees is to try to disintermediate on booking. Especially where I tend to look (Oregon coast), most properties are run by a management company that will include their name in the listing. Once I find something I like on AirBnB, I search the property name on Google and typically save 10+%.

I’ve long wondered why there isn’t a voluntary open database somewhere for hosts to register their AirBNB name and city and allow people to look up their direct contact details.

In Iceland, I would look at guesthouses on booking.com, and look them up on a database called Google Maps.

Airbnb tries to scare the hosts about the lack of insurance if they rent out their place directly to the guests... but I guess reading the stories about how Airbnb fights insurance claims all the way, it's not like this insurance cover is worth much after all..

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#235

Post by ipython »

rhino369 wrote: post #60
Mizza wrote: post #52

Is anybody else kind of over AirBnb? I loved it for a while, but now prices have gone way up, the "cleaning fees" are exorbitant and make navigating/browsing a minefield, and I've had a few sketchy incidents (which were, admittedly, a side effect of choosing the cheapest place I could find), including one where the apartment manager came in, went through our clothes and _stole the bed_. I've found myself just using h…

Hotels are usually easier and cheaper EXCEPT if you actually want a whole house. Traveling with kids and a babysitter requires like 3 rooms and having a kitchen is a huge plus. So for that, its really good.

Sorry for all the hate you're getting from your comment. If you have even a slightly larger family - say five - good luck trying to find hotel rooms that have occupancy greater than four. Even LARGE hotel rooms inexplicably are limited to occupancy of four or below. Think rooms 800 sq ft and larger... it's ridiculous.

I have had luck with booking.com, I always found airbnb to be a bit too 'trendy', whereas the apartments I've rented from booking.com have been solid, as represented rentals with a minimum of hassle and expense.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#236

Post by blagie »

bpodgursky wrote: post #211
blagie wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd take millions of dollars over unencumbered free speech! That said, it's rarely millions. Total settlements = $50M. They have 100 full-time safety agents. This means each agent handles an average of $500k per year. If we assume each agent handles 4 incidents per day, times 200 days, that's 800 incidents, or under $1k per incident. The scale of the problem, per the article, is striking.

I think the 4 incidents a day is an exaggeration, but each "incident" is also not a rape or murder. Most are going to be for stuff like "the toilet overflowed" or "the power went out". $1k is not at all unreasonable for most "routine" emergencies.

It was a best guess with large error bars, not an exaggeration.

My assumption is that minor incidents would take 5-15 minutes (e.g. in your case of the toilet overflowing, perhaps a refund). If this dominated, you'd be looking at 30+ cases per day per agent.

More serious incidents would probably take a few days.

I kinda took a geometric mean, but I have no idea the threshold for incidents escalating to this team.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#237

Post by latchkey »

clcuc wrote: post #218
latchkey wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my concern too. It appears truly unlimited. They send me threatening emails every once and a while when I do a whole bunch of big downloads, but they don't actually limit things. I doubt you can find information on the website...

1. Do you have pretty good lawyers? Those threatening emails don't make you think about stopping having that lifestyle? 2. Why is it that you decided to live that life in Vietnam? What area within Software Development do you work with?

1. I called my rep at AT&T who sold me the plan and she asked if things had slowed down. I said no. She didn't respond after that. Get it?

2. I love a good challenge.

3. I write software that optimizes a large amount of GPU hardware.

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